Another elegant and visually appealing Living Arts production, this tape features a style of yoga that is something of a departure from the Iyengar based hatha yoga we are used to seeing presented by instructors such as Rodney Yee and Patricia Walden. Like most Living Arts productions, it's beautiful to look at and has really cool music.

The tape is led by Gurmukh, a very youthful looking 50-something yogini who practices Kundalini yoga, which she says is the oldest form of yoga and is associated with the Sikh faith. It's my understanding that Sikh is a relatively young religion, compared to the how old yoga is, so I'm not quite sure where and how this merger takes place, but that doesn't really matter. Gurmukh emphasizes that this yoga is valuable to anyone of any faith.

Of all the yoga tapes I've tried (mostly Living Arts, Yoga Zone, Bryan Kest) this is the one that most emphasizes the energy generating and heart opening aspects of yoga, so if that just sounds way weird, this video probably has too high a "woo-woo" factor for you. There's a lot of talk about opening your heart, transforming your life, and awakening the kundalini, visualized as energy coiled at the base of your spine, and letting that energy move up the spine and through your body. I don't, however, think the average user of this video will really awaken anything other than a decent sweat and an overall feeling of well-being, which is probably a good thing, from my understanding of kundalini energy. There are many who feel that working with this kind of energy can be dangerous if practiced without a teacher, and I am inclined to agree. However, I don't think that this video will "go there", so to speak, and will probably be as safe as any other yoga video for most people to use.

The Workout
Gurmukh and her students are in a beautiful clearing in what looks to be a tropical forest. She is on a sort of bamboo stage with a gong, and her four students are on the ground on colorful woven rugs with palm leaves strewn around them. They all look young, attractive and hip - at least I assume they are hip. As an indication of my un-hipness, I couldn't tell which of the young women was supposed to look like Sarah McLachlan. At the end of the video I noticed the men each only had one name, so I assume that they are very hip also.

Anyway, she starts off with the first of four segments - Awakening. There are no static postures, or even vinyasa (flow of postures). Instead there is lots of rotating, twisting, back-and-forth movements done while seated, and exhaling on one move then inhaling on the next. You're also supposed to chant "sat" on the inhale and "nam" on the exhale, which you will promptly forget to do the minute she stops reminding you to. Gurmukh tells you to keep your eyes closed and rolled up towards your third eye - obviously, you have to open them once and again to figure out what you're supposed to be doing - but once you know, that's where your attention is supposed to be focused. She keeps urging you to go faster, and feel like you are creating your own ride on a carnival. If you go fast enough, you could feel like you're flying - or like you're going to be toss your corn dogs. You might want to ignore Gurmukh at this point and really listen to your body and go at your own pace.

The next segments, Energy and Strengthening, are done standing. She says it's okay to open your eyes for balance, but still keep your eyes rolled up towards your third eye. At this point I was really losing the whole third eye thing as most of my attention kept being drawn to the hamster living on top of our wall unit. The Energy section is more twisting and back and forth type movements, similar to the first section only done standing. There is also some kicking, as well some grabbing movements that a yoga teacher of mine called "prana pulling". Sort of a punch in reverse.

The Strengthening section brings in a more cardio aspect, with some punching and jumping. I found it a little annoying to suddenly have to do a bouncy, impact type activity in bare feet and bra with support suitable only for yoga. Mercifully, it does not last long. There's a bit more movement here with arms above the head, shaking your hands to remove tension from the arms - you will have to be careful not to transfer tension to your neck and shoulders in these sequences.

The Relax segment involves some chanting and seated meditation, followed by the corpse pose which most anyone who has done yoga will be familiar with, However at this point my DD woke from her nap so I spent that section nursing her on the couch while Gurmukh banged her gong. It was still pretty relaxing.

This is a video I want to like and enjoy, and am a little surprised that I don't, very much. It has a lot of elements that appeal to me - movement, energy, some chanting and meditation, yet I find I don't really find it as fun as I think it ought to be. I did feel good after doing this video, but during a lot of the movements I'd get bored and think okay! I'm ready for the next one! In contrast, I don't feel this way during other types of yoga, while holding poses for a long time. So I don't think I'm particularly easily bored most of the time. It might be that there are too many different aspects crammed into it - breathing, meditation, flexibility, cardio, etc etc so on the whole it feels a little unfocused to me.

Nevertheless, I'm going to hang on to this one for a while longer, and revisit it at least one more time. Maybe I was just not in the right mood the last time I did it.

Sophie